Day 3 - Sept 8th - The Hike and The Hells Angels

Yo,

So after a not so cold nights sleep in Prairie Creek Redwoods, we got ourselves together, had some toast and tea which we made on our little camp stove.

We then set out for a 3-4 mile hike through the redwoods in search of 'The Big Tree".

The forest was dead quiet. We only passed one or two people on the first mile or two. The trees were towering over us, it was good shade from the sun. There were huge redwood trees that had crashed to the ground and new trees were growing out of them, or trees that had fallen and were caught by another tree, just kinda sitting there waiting to fall. We had a chat about the "if a tree falls and no one hears it, did it actually fall" idea. Turns out, yeah, it still falls.

We came across a hollow tree so we all climbed in.

If a tree fell across the hiking path the parks rangers would just cut through it and leave the rest of the tree to decay as normal. Must have taken quite a while.

When we signed in to camp and to hike in the forest we had to sign a disclaimer that stated we knew there were bears in the forests and that there was a danger associated with this. So while hiking through the woods this was constantly in the back of our minds. The guy at the sign in office told us there hadn't been a sighting in 3 weeks. Yipeeee! The hike crossed the US101 road at one point which was void of any cars so we stopped for a quick snap.

We finally reached "The Big Tree". It was 22 foot in diameter, you could fit two cars into the base of it and have room. It was huge. Sophie wasn't too impressed by the tree because she was expecting a tall tree rather than a wide tree, so we spent our time convincing her of its status as the big tree.

Unfortunately this is the only photo of the 4 of us at the big tree but it really doesnt show its size, so here is one of Emma and Ian.

After our wee hike we drove to the local town of Orick. Replacing the 'Or' with 'H' in the town name would have been a bit more accurate. We wanted to pick up some food and Sophie needed to get on the internet to sort out her college registration. We arrived at the local market shop which was literally a big barn full of shelves. We picked up some food and a bottle of Baileys.

We then went in search of a wireless internet in a town with a population of about 30. We found it at the most unlikely place. A bar called "Hawg Wild". We pulled into the parking lot which only had spaces for motorbikes. Sophie got her college registration sorted, we think. A couple pulled into the bar in a big fancy car, abviously tourists, they went into the bar and were out in 2 seconds flat with concerned faces. Check out the bar.

Returning to the campsite we had dinner, some Baileys and got the fire going again. We sat around the fire until about 1am and then called it a day.